Controlling TV with a wave of hand

WASHINGTON - Touch screens are so yesterday.Remote controls?So last century. The future is controlling your devices with a simple wave of the hand. A wiggle of the fingers will change television channels or turn the volume up or down. In videogames, your movements will control your onscreen digital avatar. It's called 3D gesture recognition and while it may not be in sores this Christmas, a number of technology companies are promising that it will be by next year.

Softkinetic, a Brussels-based software company, is one of the leaders in the gesture-control field and has teamed up with US semiconductor giant Texas Instruments and others to make this touch-less vision of the future a reality.Besides TI, Softkinetic has forged partnerships with France's Orange Vallee for interactive TV; another Belgian firm, Optrima, a maker of 3D cameras and sensors; and with Connecting Technology, a French home automation company.

On the consumer side you have three markets-television, videogames and personal computers,"Softkinetic chief executive Michel Tombroff told AFP in  a television phone interview.

On the gaming front, using camera in real time to capture motion and then take the representative avatar from that and play it on a screen with others elements in a virtual world is a pretty compelling experience." he said. US software giant Microsoft demonstrated a gesture recognition program called "Project Natal" for its Xbox 360 videogame console in June and has announced plans to launch it next year.

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'World's Thinnest' LCD TV by LG

LG Display says it has built the world's thinnest 42- and 47-inch LCD TV displays. The two new panels measure just 5.9mm (0.23 inch) thick, making them a millimeter slimmer than JVC's 7mm 32-inch TV prototype introduced last January.

While LG says it has "succeeded in developing" the ultra-slim panels, there's no word yet on when the products will ship, or what they'll cost. The picture quality will likely be good but not spectacular, although we won't know for sure until we see these panels in action.

Unlike conventional LCD TVs that use Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (CCFL) backlighting, the new LG models feature LED (light emitting diode) lighting, which enables a thinner, lighter design. The new sets weigh just 6.1kg (13.45 lbs) and 7.3kg (16.1 lbs) each, making them roughly half the weight of same-sized CCFL-backlit LCD TVs.

Picture quality? The specs offer some interesting clues. The TVs will feature a 120Hz refresh rate, which improves the appearance of fast action (e.g., sports), particularly if the video was shot in HD at 60 frames per second. While 120Hz is good, it's not on par with the latest high-end displays, including faster 240MHz panels and LG's own TruMotion 480Hz LCD TV, another prototype unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show last January.

If it sounds like I'm being picky, it's because I expect the slim LG models to cost plenty. LED backlights are more expensive than their CCFL counterparts, and it's likely the new super-slim LG sets will be marketed as premium TVs. Given their thin and light attributes, however, they'll probably look fabulous when mounted on a wall.

source:www.pcworld.com

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